When your arms aren’t long enough
I like to be positive and think of the benefits of ageing such as wisdom and experience and try to ignore the downsides. However, aching joints and the realisation that all new music sounds the same are inevitable. As is another of nature’s little tricks – presbyopia. This is where you notice that your arms are no longer long enough to read. You may first notice problems in dim lighting but then more and more often you struggle to see small print. Typically, this is something we can look forward to in our mid-forties. Here is a blog article to describe what is happening.
A perfect youthful eye
First of all, I thought it would be useful to describe what makes an eye see perfectly with no need for glasses or contact lenses. This actually has a name – emmetropia. In an emmetropic eye light from a distant object (over 20 feet/6 metres) away is focussed by the cornea onto the retina. This requires the cornea to be the correct strength lens and the eye to be a certain length.
Near focus
If this perfect eye looks at a near object then it needs to focus the image onto the retina. To do this the muscles inside the eye contract and reshape the inner (crystalline) lens into the required shape to focus whatever you’re looking at. This is called accommodation.
What goes wrong?
Unfortunately, as we age the crystalline lens hardens and gradually loses its ability to change shape. The ciliary muscle may lose its strength, also. This is progressive and in a normal, healthy individual reaches a point in the mid-forties where extra help is needed to focus on near objects. The condition is called presbyopia. It is not long sight. Definitely not long sight. Please don’t call it long sight as that drives me nuts!
What can we do about it?
Reading spectacle lenses provide the extra focussing power to bring the image onto the retina without the crystalline lens needing to do any focussing.
If you are already shortsighted or longsighted when presbyopia starts you will now need extra lens power in addition to your normal glasses to see close up. You have two prescriptions – one for far and one for near. This can be provided by two separate pairs of single vision glasses, bifocals where the near part at the bottom of the lens provides the extra reading power, or varifocals which are similar but blended and much more natural to use.
Won’t wearing glasses make my eyes worse?
Definitely not. This is a natural process and wearing glasses cannot affect it. What does happen is that you pop glasses on and see much better so you wear them more and more. This highlights how poor your vision is without glasses. The prescription doesn’t increase but you soon depend on the glasses and struggle to see without them.
Conclusion
Presbyopia may be a nuisance, but it really is just another hurdle along life’s pathway and easily remedied. And, on the bright side, you can play the reading glasses “hide and seek” games that seem to be so popular. Now, if I could work out some way for clients to locate their designer glasses when they’ve put them down then I really would be popular!
Here are links to a couple of related NHS websites where you can find a little more information.
Moorfields Eye Hospital – Presbyopia
At Bellamy Eyecare’s opticians in Leicester and Irthlingborough it is the patient who comes first. We give you the time and attention that your eyes deserve. If you have any concerns about your eyes, designer glasses, ortho k or anything else please feel free to get in touch. The easiest way is via our contact page HERE